SOTW for girls

[cdrumm4448]

I am piecing together first grade for dd for next year and I already have SOTW1. I am wondering how many girls really get into that material, since many of the activities are more boy oriented (painting yourself blue and pretending to be a Celt.) Is anything out there that is narrative like SOTW but really geared for first grade girls? Thanks!

[Sahamamama]

No help here, but what an EXCELLENT question!

 

In a few years, when we do our world history cycle, my students will want to wear blue dresses and "jewelry" and pretend to be PRINCESSES. Celts? :confused:

 

Can you tell we have three little girls here? :D

[Mommyfaithe]

My dd loved SOTW (especially 1 & 2) and painting herself blue! She actually loved it much more than her brothers (so far.)

[LizzyBee]

I have three girls, and they love SOTW, esp. the earlier levels with lots of fun activities.

[nova mama]

Maybe you can keep SOTW and just find some more girlie activities (I don't know what's in the SOTW1 AG). We had an Ancient Egypt party and I made a wig for DD (age 4 at the time) out of strips of black construction paper. She especially enjoyed the eyeliner. I'm trying to find the book that had the recipes and wig instructions.

 

ETA:

The wig might have been in here:

http://www.amazon.com/Pyramids-Hands--Activities-Experience-Kaleidoscope/dp/1885593104/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282749419&sr=1-13

 

We also used this book that year:

http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Kids-Activity-Ancient-Greece/dp/1556522908/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282749607&sr=8-3

Edited August 25, 2010 by nova mama

[~Kirsten~]

We're 10 or so chapters into SotW 1, and my daughter adores it! Now we haven't gotten to the Celts and blue paint, but I suspect that I'm the one who would have an issue with it. :lol: She can't wait to wrap up her (cornish hen) mummy and decorate it with jewels. We're making a painted Ming dynasty bowl this week, and she's beside herself trying to wait until this afternoon to do it. She loves the stories, the coloring, and even the maps. Now, my oldest isn't really a girly-girl, but she's finding plenty of "girly" aspects to it. My youngest is most definitely a girly-girl, so maybe it will be different with her, but she's excited about the mummy, too.

 

HTH a bit! I'd say the stories are wonderful, so it's worth a try to see if it catches your daughter's fancy. There was a recent thread about someone not enjoying SotW, and it was a boy who wasn't liking it, so it does happen that it doesn't always click. Maybe take a look for that thread and see if it resonates with you. But try not to worry too much!

[abbeyej]

Hm. I never found the activities particularly gender-specific. Sure, some will appeal more to some kids over others, but you absolutely *should*not* feel compelled to use them all -- just pick and choose the activities you feel are doable, appealing, and enriching in your own home school. If that means sticking mostly to the coloring page, cooking, and sewing-type activities, go for it. Though both of my kids (girl and boy) seemed to enjoy a range of activities, whether they were dressing up as warriors or making models with cake or making paper puppets, etc.

 

On the other hand, if she's only 5, I'd put off SOTW for a year anyway. Not that she couldn't handle it at 5 -- just that I think kids get more out of the SOTW series if they start between 6 and 8.

[Carol in Cal.]

DD loved SOTW. Because of it, for quite a while she wanted to be an archeologist when she grew up, and now that she is in high school she is taking honors history and wants to take two AP history classes in future years.

 

We did not use the activities very much, more the extra book suggestions which were excellent. The IR books in the AG for SOTW1 were particularly good for an emerging reader.

 

We tended to supplement more with visits to museums and history sites and ethnic festivals.

[TKDmom]

My dd loved SOTW1 when she was 7. She likes to color, so all the coloring pages were great for her. My boys adored coloring the battle scenes, but dd found plenty of pages where she could unleash her creativity and color pink and purple flowers, surrounded by butterflies.

[RootAnn]

My two older dd have enjoyed SOTW 1 & 2. We only do the activities that I think they would enjoy & that I can handle as far as the mess & planning. :tongue_smilie:

 

Some kids don't like it, some do. I'm not sure it is gender-specific, more like kid-and-parent specific.

[patchfire]

Hm. I never found the activities particularly gender-specific. Sure, some will appeal more to some kids over others, but you absolutely *should*not* feel compelled to use them all -- just pick and choose the activities you feel are doable, appealing, and enriching in your own home school.

 

This.

 

My only other suggestion would be to look for a copy of Outrageous Women of Ancient Times and others in the same series, and read relevant portions as the opportunity arises.

[Haiku]

My dd loves SOTW even more than my ds does.

 

Tara

[2_girls_mommy]

I have 2 girls. One wants to be a paleontologist and loves dinosaurs and other things that my grandmother finds "boyish." :) The other is a girly girly princess type. They both love SOTW and the activities. We did not paint our bodies blue though. We dressed up like Celtic bards in cloaks and made the dragon brooch instead in SOTW2. They did make Conquistodor masks once too, complete with beards and all. In SOTW1 we dressed in togas and had a Roman feast one day. And there are lots of good arts and crafts projects we have done. They both love those. If there is nothing in particular that appeals to me for a chapter, we have skipped the activity that week.

 

My girly dd loves to color all things in beautiful stripes of pink and purple and yellow. It has actually worked out well on the Renaissance coloring sheets. The men of those times did not wear what we would call manly looking clothes today anyway. :)

[smrtmama]

This.

 

My only other suggestion would be to look for a copy of Outrageous Women of Ancient Times and others in the same series, and read relevant portions as the opportunity arises.

 

If you feel SOTW is lacking strong female historical figures, by all means, supplement with another book (like the one patchfire mentions, it's great). So much of history is written by men, for men, ABOUT men.

 

If the issue is the activities only, I think it's doing a disservice to children (male or female) to think those activities aren't equally acceptable for a boy or a girl.

[Karen in CO]

This.

 

My only other suggestion would be to look for a copy of Outrageous Women of Ancient Times and others in the same series, and read relevant portions as the opportunity arises.

:iagree:

My girls loved SoTW especially volume 1 and the activities. I even taught a co-op history based on it that was mostly girls and they loved it. My girls still listen to the vol. 1 audio most nights at bedtime.

 

I'm looking forward to coming back to volume 1 next year for the youngest since she was only 2 when we did it the first time.

[NanceXToo]

So far, we're only on like Chapter 11 of SOTW1 but so far my daughter really enjoys it. She can at least tolerate most of the reading, and she's enjoyed ALL of the projects and activities we've done so far, and she enjoys the mapwork and coloring pages.

 

With that said, we started it when she was in third grade. Actually, she'd just finished third grade. We did it that summer, stopped for 4th grade to focus on Oak Meadow, and then picked it up again this summer.

 

I honestly think that in 1st grade most of it would have been way too far over her head and that she wouldn't have gotten much out of it (except to continue to enjoy the activities and crafts). Most of the reading just wouldn't have made an impression or stuck with her, I think. Personally, I don't think 1st grade is old enough for SOTW but that's just my opinion.

[miracleone]

My dd7 enjoyed SOTW1 with the activities. We didn't do all that AG suggests but we did some along with Ancient Civilization History pockets and some online craft activities I found. www.lessonpathways.com have lots of activities that goes with SOTW 1 too. Enjoy!

[Satori]

Hmmm, and I always thought the activities leaned more to the girly side! My 5 year old girl loves SOTW and the activities we do! She loves dinosaurs and paleontology, archaeology, fossils, etc... LOVED Egypt and mummies and learning about Isis, etc... Click my blog link for SOTW to see all the fun stuff we've done so far.

[robsiew]

My dd has really enjoyed SOTW... I do have to say that much of the material of the ancients and middle ages has seemed very "boy orientated" to me... lots of violence, wars, etc. However, that's the time period! I've tried to add some things in for my dd along the way, especially in her literature that would cater more to girl, but really... there hasn't been a lot. She doesn't seem to mind at all though...

[dasilva324]

What a great question...I'm starting SOTW this year with dd and appreciate the replies to this question....I may be the one who doesn't like the blue paint too! :lol: I can see that my 2 year old ds is going to want to particpate for sure!

[Annie Laurie]

I am piecing together first grade for dd for next year and I already have SOTW1. I am wondering how many girls really get into that material, since many of the activities are more boy oriented (painting yourself blue and pretending to be a Celt.) Is anything out there that is narrative like SOTW but really geared for first grade girls? Thanks!

 

We haven't started yet and might not until I finish something else, but my dd has seen me copying activity sheets and such, and she can't wait to do the projects. She loves Ancient history more than her brothers and spend hours reading about Ancient Rome in particular. I'm pretty sure she'd love to paint herself blue and pretend to be a Celt!

[kelouis75]

My dd loved SOTW (especially 1 & 2) and painting herself blue! She actually loved it much more than her brothers (so far.)

 

:iagree: My daughter and I had a great time with 1 and 2... Plus Susan Wise Bauer includes many interesting women in the books...

[Veritaserum]

I have all girls (five of them!). They love SOTW. We don't do all the activities, but they have liked all of the ones that we've done. We're doing Ancients again this year (2nd rotation). I bought Celtic tattoos to use instead of blue paint, but I'm sure they would have enjoyed the blue paint. ;)

[Farrar]

I really find the question surprising. I don't think of the activities as gender based at all.

[GoVanGogh]

I actually got rid of the AG as my boy hates anything remotely resembling crafts. Building a catapult, he's so there. But painting anything? Even yourself? Never. He just wants to read the book and get on with life.